But the time came when the Egyptian empire also was to come in conflict with the Romans. The tragic romance of Cleopatra, the last daughter of the Ptolemies, is known to every one, though curiously enough the patent fact is often overlooked that this “daughter of the Nile” was in no proper sense an Egyptian, but to the last drop of her blood a Macedonian Greek, bearing the name even of one of the wives of the father of Alexander the Great. It was this Egyptian empire of the Ptolemies, then, which served as the direct channel of transit of the old Grecian culture to Rome, somewhat as Persia had been the channel of transit of Egyptian and Babylonian culture to Greece. It was a curious and interesting revival through which Egypt, which for some centuries had ceased to play an important part in the great game of the nations, came to be again the centre of culture of the entire world, even though this time it bore an exotic and not an indigenous culture.
But though this empire of the Ptolemies had thus a vastly greater importance than the other portions of Alexander’s dismembered empire, we shall treat its history somewhat briefly here, since we must necessarily return to some phases of it more in detail in pursuing the history of that Roman power by which the kingdom of the Ptolemies was finally overthrown.[a]
The Kingdom of the Ptolemies: the Thirty-third Egyptian Dynasty[d]
| Years | Began B.C. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Lagus or Soter reigned | 38 | 323 | |
| Philadelphus | 38 | 285 | |
| Euergetes | 25 | 247 | |
| Philopator | 17 | 222 | |
| Epiphanes | 24 | 204 | |
| Philometor | 35 | 181 | |
| Physcon or Euergetes II | 29 | 146 | |
| Soter II or Lathyrus | 10 | 117 | |
| Alexander I (Soter deposed) | 18 | 107 | |
| Soter II restored | 7 | 89 | |
| Berenice | 6 months | 81 | |
| Alexander II | 6 months | 80 | |
| Neus Dionysus or Auletes | 14 | 80 | |
| Ptolemy the Elder | 4 | 51 | |
| Ptolemy the Younger | 3 | 48 | |
| Cleopatra | 14 | 44 | |
| Egypt a Roman province | 30 |
When Egypt was given to Ptolemy by the council of generals, Cleomenes was at the same time and by the same power made second in command, and he governed Egypt for one year before Ptolemy’s arrival, that being in name the first year of the reign of Philip Arrhidæus, or, according to the chronologer’s mode of dating, the first year after Alexander’s death. The first act of Ptolemy was to put Cleomenes to death.
[321-316 B.C.]
Perdiccas, in the death of Cleomenes and the seizure of the body of Alexander, had seen quite enough proof that Ptolemy, though too wise to take the name of king, had in reality grasped the power; and he now led the Macedonian army against Egypt, to enforce obedience and to punish the rebellious lieutenant.
Perdiccas attempted to cross the Nile at the deep fords below Memphis. Part of his army passed the first ford, though the water was up to the men’s breasts. But they could not pass the second ford in the face of Ptolemy’s army. After this check, whole bodies of men, headed by their generals, left their ranks; and among them Pithon, a general who had held the same rank under Alexander as Perdiccas himself, and who would no longer put up with his haughty commands. Upon this the disorder spread through the whole army, and Perdiccas soon fell by the hand of one of his own soldiers.
On the death of their leader, all cause of war ceased. Ptolemy sent corn and cattle into the camp of the invading army, which then asked for orders from him who the day before had been their enemy. The princes, Philip Arrhidæus and the young Alexander, both fell into his hands; and he might then, as guardian in their name, have sent his orders over the whole of Alexander’s conquests. But, by grasping at what was clearly out of his reach, he would have lost more friends and power than he would have gained; and when the Macedonian phalanx, whose voice was law to the rest of the army, asked his advice in the choice of a guardian for the two princes, he recommended to them Pithon and Arrhidæus; Pithon, who had just joined him, and had been the cause of the rout of the Macedonian army, and Arrhidæus, who had given up to him the body of Alexander.
